According to a survey, Americans are much less healthy than the British. Even the British at the poor end of the scale are healthier than wealthier-than-average Americans. Woo-hoo. Pass me another jumbo bucket of chicken bits, fries and a gallon of (non-diet) coke.

On my way home from the station, there is an old derelict shop on Albany Road and a footpath which goes up some steps. Today I noticed the front of the shop had 'incident tape' across it. Climbing the steps, I could smell smoke. I looked through a gap in the fence and noticed that there had been a fire. The building seemed to be used as a scally hang-out and I occasionally saw shifty looking kids in the alleyway and noticed them disappear through the fence when they thought nobody was looking.